


This Is Why You Don't Split the Party

by LandofWordsandNonsense (RiaHawk)



Series: Prompted One Shots [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: 'no don't', Beau gets jacked up, Canon Typical Violence, Gen, Mentions of the rest of the Nein, Molly gets traumatized, splitting the party is never a good idea, undead with mind affecting powers are just rude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 10:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16195514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiaHawk/pseuds/LandofWordsandNonsense
Summary: Molly twisted around so quickly he nearly got tangled in his own tail. "No, stop! Beau!"He couldn't quite catch up with her; she had too much of a head start. The best he could do was try to keep up and watch her back until she snapped out of it.





	This Is Why You Don't Split the Party

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "No, stop!"

"Do you think there's any more dead assholes down her?" Beau leaned forward, peering down the dark corridor. Her goggles still looked incredibly stupid, Molly privately thought, but it helped her see in the dark... which was not to be underestimated when Beau was most effective when she could punch people in the face. Especially since they'd gotten separated from the rest of the group, including Caleb and his Dancing Lights.

 

Molly shrugged. "Probably. This seems to be the place for it. At least they're pretty fragile dead assholes."

 

"Yeah, they totally are. Like, that last batch couldn't take a punch for shit." She took a few more steps forward cautiously, then pulled some more ball bearings out of her pocket. "Kinda wish we had Nott with us, though. The traps are just starting to piss me off." She flicked the ball bearings down the corridor, and was rewarded with the sound of something spring-loaded triggering.

 

"I think I agree with you but don't let it go to your head." Molly shook his head as they moved past the trap she'd triggered. "Whoever designed this place seriously needs to relax."

 

She started to say something smart in response, then paused. "Did you hear that?"

 

"Hear what?"

 

"Sounded like fighting up ahead." She moved forward, listening.

 

"Think it's the others?"

 

"I fuckin' hope so..." They both started moving as quickly as they could without setting off another trap. Soon Molly could hear the muffled sounds of combat as well, though it was still too muddled to tell who or what might be involved. But they could do worse than to at least check it out.

 

However, before they could get far enough to catch up with it, Beau suddenly stopped dead, so quickly that Molly almost crashed into her. Her head whipped around in confusion. "Caleb?"

 

Molly blinked. "...Did you already forget who you're with because I think that might hurt my feelings."

 

"Shut up. No. I just heard Caleb, nearby. Close, not in the fight. Caleb? Where  _ are _ you?"

 

"I didn't hear anything," Molly said, frowning. "You sure it wasn't that Message thing?"

 

"It didn't sound the same. Sounded like it was... down this way." Beau turned and started heading for a cross passage they'd almost passed. Molly followed her uncertainly.

 

"How are you hearing him and I'm not?"

 

"I've got like super good hearing?"

 

"Uh huh. Sure." But he kept following her, unwilling to get even MORE separated at this point.

 

"Caleb? Where are you, buddy? Can you throw a light up or something, we can barely see for shit in here..." Beau continued deeper into the passage.

 

Molly hesitated, and paused. Something about this didn't seem right, something was bugging him, and he couldn't figure out what. "...Beau, I think-" He cut off as he heard something behind them. It wasn't  _ loud _ , but it echoed down here, a high pitched, hissing, sizzling sound, a little like a firework as it touched off.

 

Two things happened at once then. Beau suddenly straightened, then darted down the corridor. "Caleb! There you are!" The other thing was that Molly recognized the noise behind them. That was Caleb's Chromatic Orb spell, fire flavor. 

 

Molly twisted around so quickly he nearly got tangled in his own tail. "No, stop! Beau!" He ran after her, cursing the fact that he'd let his scimitars go out, lulled into a false sense of security by the ease with which they'd taken apart the foes they'd run into before. He relit the one in his dominant hand as he moved, and it flared a bright white that almost blinded him after he was so used to the dark. Beau had almost gotten out of sight, but he was able to keep eyes on her, if just barely. " _ Beau! _ That's not Caleb!" He didn't know what it was, but with the real Caleb definitively throwing spells around  _ behind _ them, and Molly not able to hear whatever Beau had been following, the short answer was mind fuckery.

 

He couldn't quite catch up with Beau; she had too much of a head start and the footing was starting to get treacherous. He called out again, but she was well and truly under now, trapped in whatever had ensnared her. He briefly toyed with the idea of trying to Charm her back, but he had no idea how two layers of mind-affecting shit would affect her, or if it would even work. The best he could do was try to keep up and watch her back until she snapped out of it.

 

Then he ran into something. Beau had darted into a room with a still intact door, and either she or something else had slammed it shut in his face. He snarled a curse in Infernal and scrabbled for the handle. It wasn't locked, but the door was stuck and wouldn't budge. "Beau!"

 

He could hear her started yell on the other side. "What the  _ FUCK?! _ " ...Well at least it sounded like she'd snapped out of it. Small favors. He hit the door with his shoulder, and really wished that Yasha or Jester was here right now. It shifted, a little, but didn't open, so he tried it again. And again. It finally gave a little on the third try, and one more was enough to pop it all the way open. He stumbled in, looking around wildly for Beau. She was easy to spot, at least.

 

She'd been knocked flat on her back, and was currently trying to hold a skeletal, half-spectral figure off of her with her staff. There was just enough light for Molly to make out the ragged, bleeding scratches on her upper chest and shoulders, and the blood running from a corner of her mouth. The skeletal thing was trying to claw at her again, and appeared to be putting quite a surprising amount of strength into pinning Beau, judging by the strain on her face as she tried to force it away.

 

"Hey!" The thing's head snapped up at his shout, and the jawbone unhinged itself as it hissed at him, cold blue light flaring in its eye sockets. " _ Get the fuck off my asshole, asshole! _ " Molly snarled in Infernal. It gibbered angrily at him as the Vicious Mockery raked its bones. The distraction was enough that Beau was able to get a decisive kick in on its torso, and the thing was solid enough that she knocked it off of her, then rolled away. It hissed again and suddenly it was in Molly's face, clawing at him. The spot on his neck bled as he tried to blind it, and while the cold blue pinpricks did flicker for a moment, nothing much seemed to happen. Right. They had to actually  _ have eyes _ to go blind. It slashed deeply into him across his chest, a lot closer to his throat than he really liked. He retaliated with a swing that was more of a flail, and scored a hit on the thing that probably wouldn't have been at all impressive if it hadn't reacted badly to the white flames of his blood rite. It still wasn't enough to do more than leave a gash in it and piss it off.

 

Before it could strike again, Beau hit it from behind as she planted her staff between the flagstones of the floor and used it to launch herself at it, her foot connecting solidly with its skull. It screeched, and she tried to bring the other end of her staff around to hit it again, but its semi-material nature meant the blow whiffed. It lunged at her, dripping talons leaving long, nasty looking gashes down her back.

 

Molly slid his other scimitar across his neck, and ice formed on the blade. He attacked the thing again, both blades flashing, and while the first one left some appreciable damage in its wake, the other one didn't seem to do anything at all. Molly cursed and threw himself backwards to avoid a swipe from the thing.

 

Beau took advantage of its momentary distraction to punch it in the head and then the ribcage, and the blue flames in its eye sockets flared brighter. It hissed, it's jaw unhinging again, and a bitingly cold, green tinged mist emerged from it. "FU-" Beau's expletive was cut off as the mist surrounded her, ice coating her skin as her muscles locked up.

 

"Oh,  _ fuck  _ you!" Molly launched himself at it, and managed to get a swing in with his good sword that carved a significant chunk out of it, before it spun around to face him. He raised one blade to try to hold it off, but accidentally looked into its hollow eye sockets. He choked, suddenly unable to breathe. The flickering radiance in its eyes seemed to bore into him, something in  _ it _ pulling at something in  _ him _ , draining him of something vital. He couldn't fight back, couldn't break its gaze, couldn't  _ think _ , couldn't  _ breathe _ , couldn't do  _ anything _ as it took something _ away _ from him, leaving  him hollowed out,  _ EMPTY _ ...

 

"Mother _ FUCKER _ !" There was a cracking sound behind it as Beau managed to wrench one arm free of the ice and slam it into the creature's skull. The blow was enough to leave a crack in it, and more importantly, break eye contact. It lashed out at her, screeching in fury. It clawed her in one long swipe across her abdomen, leaving long rents in both her robe and across her stomach. Molly gasped for breath and instinctively swung both blades at it as hard as he could. His glowing scimitar struck it in the same place Beau's earlier blow had, and its skull practically exploded. Bones and tatters of something immediately clattered to the floor.

 

Molly dropped to his knees, trying to force the panic that had gripped him into a somewhat manageable state, his arms wrapped around himself. A moment later, Beau dropped next to him, with pale patches across her dark skin and still coated with frost, and clumsily pulled him against her. They were both shaking, although for different reasons. Later, if anyone had asked, they'd have both insisted they were clinging to each other because Beau was still half-frozen and Molly ran hot, and that was true as far as it went, but it was also because they both knew Molly needed contact to ground himself after that.

 

A few minutes passed, and the shaking subsided as Beau warmed up and Molly managed to convince himself that he was still there, that he wasn't empty. "...That  _ really _ fucking sucked," Beau said after a moment.

 

"Yeah. It really did. Can you stand?"

 

She thought about it. "...Uh... sure?"

 

"I'm taking that to mean you can about as well as I can, which is  _ not very _ . Lean on each other?"

 

She cracked a ghost of a smile. "Why the fuck not."

 

It did take some maneuvering to get to their feet together, and they really did need to support each other to get moving. "I think you've lost more blood than I have this time around," Molly said with an attempt at his usual humor, though there was some truth in it. This had been a fucking close one. "Come on, let's go find the others and bother Jester until she heals us." They slowly moved towards the door, and just as they reached it, Beau jumped and swore. Molly jumped too, and they nearly fell over.

 

"Nott? We're here. In... a room." There was a pause. "I don't know, things were fucked up." She paused again and glanced over at Molly. "Yeah, he's with me. Do me a favor and Message him too. Just for. You know. Fun."

 

Accordingly, a moment later, Nott's voice sounded in Molly's head.  _ "Molly, are you with Beau? You can reply to this Message." _

 

Molly let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. This sounded  _ real _ , at least. "Yes, we've been having a delightful time. Marvelous story, you really missed out."

 

Nott responded quickly.  _ "Where are you? Do you need help? You can reply to this Message." _

 

"We're on our way to you. And... yes, we could really use that right about now."

 

There wasn't another Message after that, so they might as well keep going. "...Thanks," Beau said after a moment. "Wanted to be sure that was, you know, not someone fucking with my head again."

 

"Oh no, I'm with you on that. Better to be safe than sorry, especially since I don't think we can do that again..."

 

" _ Fuck _ no." She went quiet as they staggered back up the corridor they'd come down. "...Thanks for chasing after me. Not sure I'd have come out of it in time if you hadn't kept yelling at me. It was like weaponized obnoxiousness. It was kind of awesome."

 

"Weaponized obnoxiousness is something I'm very good at," he said lightly. "I wasn't going to let you have all the fun. Besides. I don't think I'd have gotten out of that if you hadn't made it look away."

 

She cracked a grin as they finally made their way into the main passage, and they could see the bobbing glow further down that was almost certainly Caleb's Dancing Lights. "We kinda make a pretty good team, don't we?"

 

"We really do. We should keep it to ourselves and confuse the others the next time it happens."

 

"I'm cool with that."

 


End file.
